Barrio Meaning
/bˈɑrioʊ/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounA municipality or subdivision of a municipality in Spanish America, and in Spain itself.
nounA slum on the periphery of a major city, or a low to middle-class neighborhood in a lesser city, in Venezuela or the Dominican Republic.
Sentence Examples
The barrio was a vibrant neighborhood.
We walked through the barrio to get there.
He grew up in a vibrant barrio in East Los Angeles.
CEFR Practice Quiz
In the Spanish-speaking neighborhood known as the ____, families often gather for festivals.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
They lived in a quiet ____ on the outskirts of the large Spanish city.
Word Origin & History
Borrowed from Spanish barrio, from Arabic بَرِّيّ (barriyy, “wild”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"In the barrio, they talked excitedly about the wood-gatherer's discovery. There was so much pushing and quibbling over details that by the time the barrio had organized itself to set out for Salug to investigate, dusk had already fallen."
— 2008, Resil B. Mojares, “Beast in the Fields”, in Gémino H. Abad, editor, Upon Our Own Ground: Filipino short stories in English: 1956 to 1972, page 413:
"After World War II, its prospering working-class white residents moved to other, more upscale suburban developments, and by the 1950s the area had become an isolated ethnic enclave with its own barrio gang."
— 1993, Diego Vigil, “The Established Gang”, in Scott Cummings, Daniel J. Monti, editors, Gangs: The Origins and Impact of Contemporary Youth Gangs in the United States, page 98:
"Mr. Jones and me, stumbling through the barrio"
— 1993, “Mr. Jones”, performed by Counting Crows:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
In the Spanish-speaking neighborhood known as the ____, families often gather for festivals.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
They lived in a quiet ____ on the outskirts of the large Spanish city.